Capítulos Once Awaiting The Golden Carp Analysis

Entry #1: Capítulos Once: Awaiting the Golden Carp
“‘The black bass thinks he can be king of the fish, but all he wants is to eat them. The black bass is a killer. But the real kind is the golden carp, Tony. He does not eat his own kind-’ Cico’s eyes remained glued on the dark waters. His body was motionless, like a spring awaiting release. We had been whispering since we arrived at the pond, why I don’t know, except that it was just one of those places where one can communicate only in whispers, like church. We sat for a long time, waiting for the golden carp. It was very pleasant to sit in the warm sunshine and watch the pure waters drift by. The drone of the summer insects and grasshoppers made me sleepy. The lush green grass was cool, and
Anaya’s choice of words for this scene paints a more serious thought of the golden carp in the reader’s mind and how other people, like Cico, view it. When Antonio and Cico came to the river, they “had been whispering… it was just one of those places where one can communicate only in whispers, like church.” Between the two boys, Cico had been the only one who recognized the carp as a holy figure and worshipped it; however, right when the boys got to the pond, both of them were whispering as if Antonio felt the presence and the need to honor the carp like he would in honor his own god at church. Also, when Cico was waiting for the carp to appear, “his body was motionless, like a spring awaiting to release.” The anticipation seems to be building up inside Cico. Not a lot of people can say that they’ve seen in person or something they idolize, and when the golden carp would present itself, Cico would release all of that excitement with Antonio. The two boys in the collage represent Antonio and Cico. Cico is the taller one holding Antonio’s shoulders, showing him his perspective on the world. The lightness that is very thinly surrounding them is the “warm sunshine… the pure waters… [and] the drone of the summer insects and grasshoppers” that made
The man seems to be hiding behind all the red which judging on the way the red is painted on, it looks like it was splattered on the man. Majority of people would probably assume the red is blood; however, only the man knows what it is and what happened to himself and given his description, he will probably continue to be the only person to know what happened and who he truly is. The Wild Man title was not a name he chose for himself, the artist chose it. Like for Narciso, the townspeople are the ones who label him as a danger and Antonio chose to describe him as having “eyes… wild and red.” Red is associated with the will to survive. If the red in the painting was actually blood, then it would’ve been for survival, like Narciso’s drinking. He drinks all the time because alcohol is the only thing keeping him disconnected from adulthood therefore the only thing keeping him alive. Adulthood is filled with sins and pain so the white in the painting is the purity Narciso wants to keep and